When Did Dublin Become... This?

Local News

I know deer management can split a room in this town. Some people love seeing them in the yard. Others think the population has grown past what the town can comfortably handle. Both are real positions, and the city is moving from conversation to an actual program.

City Council authorized an agreement in June with USDA Wildlife Services, the federal agency that runs these programs for cities that choose to move forward — Dublin studied Worthington's program as a reference point while building its own. It would involve professional, lethal population control, expected to start sometime in late 2026 or early 2027.

Survey data shows city support for some kind of management rose from 50% in 2023 to 59% this year — a real majority, but a substantial share of residents still disagree, including some with specific ethical objections to lethal methods.

That's what the city's first public education session, August 25, is for — a chance to hear from city staff and other experts, and ask questions before anything moves forward. Whichever side you're on, it's worth showing up.

More info here.

Local News

What a summer for some lucky Dublin kids. One group just got home from Japan, where they took language lessons, tried real sushi, and got a hands-on look at earthquake-resistant engineering. Around the same time, two more groups wrapped up trips to Europe — one exploring the Alps and the Mediterranean coast, the other touring historic landmarks across Italy and Greece, snapping photos in front of places like the Colosseum along the way. The kind of trip most of us would trade a week of vacation days for.

This isn't a one-off, either. It's part of Dublin's ongoing Global Travel Program, run through EF Educational Tours with Dublin teachers leading every group, and each destination tied to something students are actually studying — the Japan trip, for instance, is built specifically around robotics, engineering, and how cities handle earthquakes.

Worth knowing if your family's considering one of these for next year: trips like these usually run into the thousands of dollars per student once flights, hotels, and excursions are factored in. It's real money, and worth budgeting for well ahead of time if it's something your kid wants to do.

Speaking of next year — the lineup's already taking shape. There's a London and Paris trip for rising 6th through 9th graders, and a brand-new trip to South Africa for grades 6 through 12, built around apartheid history, sustainability, and a safari to close it out. South Africa is the one I'd actually push for — I lived there myself for two years, and it's an endlessly fascinating place, offering a different kind of eye-opening experience than a trip to Europe. Worth being mindful of safety there, more so than in Europe, but that shouldn't overshadow how remarkable the experience can be.

That being said, what's really incredible isn't the itinerary — it's what a trip like that can do to how a kid sees the world afterward.

Local News

The Dublin Irish Festival is one week away, and if you're anything like the rest of us, you've probably already got the dates circled. Turns out we're not the only ones looking forward to it. An Indianapolis magazine just ran a travel piece calling Dublin a "one-tank trip" worth taking — and what's interesting is how much of it has nothing to do with the festival at all. It leans just as heavily on things that didn't exist here a decade ago: the Dublin Link, the rooftop bar at Vaso, the restaurants and hotels filling in Bridge Park.

That's really the part worth sitting with. Downtown Dublin is a genuinely different place than it was in 2016. The AC Hotel, Bridge Park's first, didn't open until 2017. The Dublin Link — now the signature image in basically every write-up of this town — didn't open until March 2020. Everything built around it since, the second hotel, North Market Bridge Park, the wave of restaurants that followed, all came after that.

A decade ago, a travel writer covering Dublin had one real story to tell: the Irish Festival. Now they've got a walkable downtown, a landmark bridge, and a nightlife scene to write about before they ever get to the festival at all. And in seven days, we get to show them why the festival's still worth the trip too.